The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) presented parliamentarians with a plan to completely eliminate undergraduate tuition fees during its National Lobby Week from Feb. 1-5.
CFS members, including executives from Carleton University’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), met with MPs and senators from various parties to explain their proposed Post-Secondary Education Act.
The plan would relocate federal funding from areas such as spending on Registered Education Savings Plan and education tax credits, and instead use it to fund post-secondary education directly through an annual $3.3-billion provincial funding transfer.
“The main thing that we were looking for is real federal initiative in terms of a national act on post-secondary education,” said GSA president Michael Bueckert.
The CFS’ plan included a 50-50 cost-sharing model in which equal funding from provincial and federal governments would attempt to eliminate tuition fees for all undergraduate students.
During Lobby Week, the CFS also attempted to dispel the notion that the federal government can’t do anything about higher education, because it falls under provincial responsibility.
“The federal government has the scope and power to act in these spectrums, and we would really love to see this new government take further steps to do things that would benefit all students in Canada,” said Alannah James, GSA vice-president (academic).
The Post-Secondary Education Act may be the first of its kind in Canada, according to Lee Ward, professor of politics and international studies at the University of Regina.
“It’s a really interesting proposal,” he said. “We’re known in Canada for having relatively inexpensive tuition rates when compared to the United States, but when has a politician actually proposed a plan that takes steps to reduce tuition? It’s happening down there right now with Bernie Sanders, but it just hasn’t happened here.”
James said this year’s Lobby Week was one of the most successful the CFS has ever had, with a record-high of 180 meetings throughout the week. Liberal parliamentarians expressed interest in the CFS’ plan, she said.
Last fall, the Liberals promised to increase the maximum in Canada Student Grants that low-income full-time students can receive to $3,000, and to spend $1.5 billion over three years to create 40,000 youth jobs annually.
The party also promised to require students to pay off their student debt to the federal government only after they have received a job paying more than $25,000 after graduation.
“A lot of their platform points did respond to the needs of students,” James said, “and they’re very accessible, as you can tell by the number of meetings we were able to book.”
Bueckert added that members of other political parties also received the CFS’ ideas with enthusiasm.
“We talked to MPs and senators from all parties,” he said, “and we saw a lot of support for our recommendations from Conservatives, just as sometimes we were met with a cold reception from some Liberal politicians.”
According to James, the CFS’ Lobby Week provided students “unprecedented access to the people who make decisions.”
She said that though Lobby Week is over, the work of the CFS is not.
“Traditionally, students aren’t deemed as legitimate stakeholders in their own lives and, in this case, their education,” she said. “We need to continue to push so that our voices are heard and our demands are on the table.”
